Produced by Frank Darabont, Liz Glotzer

Cast: Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Andre Braugher, Laurie Holden, Toby Jones, Frances Sternhagen.

Director and screenwriter Frank Darabont is known for two of the best loved of all the Stephen King adaptations to the screen, The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. Here he leans back to an early love of horror in this excellent example of the genre. The Mist has King’s trademark character-driven plot centring on how ordinary people react in a situation of extreme fear, along with a moral dialectic in the best apocalyptic tradition. Gripping on several levels, it’s a terrifying visceral journey that doesn’t let up, even after the end.

A violent storm uproots trees, smashes windows and roofs. It’s followed by a thick, pure white mist that hides unimaginable horrors, and traps a supermarket full of people behind plate glass that suddenly appears too fragile to shield them. It appears that the terrors have been let loose by military scientists operating at a nearby base.

Genre elements are adroitly done, especially the impenetrable mist, the half open door, unidentifiable growls, crunches and skittering noises that come out of the mist, and then something visible but impossible that slithers and grasps. But it’s not just the monsters that menace from the outside. Fear throws trapped people into extreme expressions of deep neuroses, paranoia, suspicion and denial, as well as religious fanaticism and quiet heroism. An apocalyptic scenario lends itself easily to giant locusts, Jurassic raptors and sudden, random death. It escalates through one woman’s obsession to power-crazed calls for human sacrifice to propitiate to a jealous and vengeful God. Attempted rationality can barely preside, and then, even that might not be what helps people survive in the end.

It’s the superb skill of both writers that gets viewers polarised by opposing viewpoints and reacting ourselves with violent emotions at what we’re seeing. The film touches on issues that are current and worrisome, scientific tampering with the natural world, climate change and cataclysmic storms, our helpless inability to know how to deal with a global threat.

The characters are well-fleshed and recognizable without being too stereotyped but don’t get too attached to the likeable ones. King’s brutal treatment of people we hope will survive and flourish is well known. Andre Braugher is memorable as a paranoid and litigious lawyer. Marcia Gay Harden’s self-righteous doom-sayer spits out the filthiest, most vitriolic lines with glittery-eyed aplomb. The surprising skills and unassuming heroism of Toby Jones’ character Ollie are all the more pleasing because no-one expects it of an overlooked supermarket clerk. Not all the nasty ones get the slow and agonizing deaths we hope for them and unthinkable torment is often the lot of survivors.

© Avril Carruthers                           February 4^th 2008